Every salesperson would like nothing better than achieving his targets well on time. But what if you have too many leads pending in your sales funnel and are finding it difficult to handle them. When time is limited and you need to close deals fast, it’s time to speed up your sales cycle so that you can close all the leads on time and achieve your targets.
Let’s look at eight cool approaches to speed up the sales cycle.
1. Automate your sales process
Make use of automation through a Sales CRM software that can help you to automate repetitive tasks. Tasks, like filling in forms, preparing daily, weekly and monthly report and sending emails, can all be automated if you use a CRM software. All you need is to do enter the data of leads and the software will do everything else for you. Automation saves your precious time and instead of spending time sending emails, you can go meet leads and close the deal. You can even sign contracts online using documentation software with an electronic signature, saving you the time you would spend to go and get the sign on the contract. All these saves time and speeds up your sales cycle.
2. Use Lead scoring
When you have many leads and are in a confusion how to handle them all on time, then use lead scoring. This is a technique where you assign a score to all the leads based on your assessment of how likely they are to buy. Here again making use of a sales CRM will help you do the ranking quickly and based on the score, ranks are generated. You can then focus on the top-ranked leads, as they are more likely to be prospective. This will help you to speed up cycle time.
3. Set a goal for each call
Each time you make a call to a prospect set a goal for that call. The goal can be in terms of introducing the product or explaining all product features or clarifying doubts, etc. Once your goal is set, then make sure you start the call by telling the prospect about the goal of the call. Now that both of you are clear about the goals of the call, things will go smoothly. Not only it helps you complete your calls faster, but you can also impress your prospect with your organized way of working.
4. Clarify pricing early on!
There should be no confusion about the pricing as it is the most important element to help the prospect take a decision. Ensure that you clarify on pricing early on and not wait till the close. If you disclose the full pricing at the last minute, the prospect may find it difficult to decide. So make sure you are transparent and reveal the complete pricing with all hidden costs, taxes, etc. This makes your work easier and helps you to close fast with no confusion.
5. Handle objections early
Just as you need to ensure clarity on pricing at an early stage, similarly ensure you handle objections at an early stage of your sales cycle. Don’t wait till the close to handle objections. Make sure you encourage the prospect to state his objections and handle each of the objections professionally and systematically one by one. This saves time for you during the close and speeds up your cycle time.
6. Ensure your team is trained
Having a team of trained sales professionals is a great asset for a company. Ensure your sales team members are trained on all aspects – the product, its features and functionalities, the sales process, selling techniques and communication skills. A trained salesperson will be able to handle work effectively and can close easily. This helps you to achieve better results and you can also speed up cycle time.
7. The personal touch matters
Even in today’s digital age, the personal touch matters a lot. So reach out to the prospect and engage with him. Make sure you develop a personal rapport. The prospect should look at you as a friend and an advisor who is there to solve his problems and not as an irritating salesman who is trying to sell a product. The personal touch helps you to build a relationship and you can close deals easier.
8. Implement incremental close strategy
Incremental closing is a strategy whereby you make the prospect say yes to small items on your close checklist after each call. Rather than wait till the end to close the deal, break the closure into small parts or micro connects. After each call get the prospect to agree on one minor point. In this way you can close slowly and gradually. This will help you save time during the final closing of the deal. You can close faster through this approach and thus speed up on your sales cycle.
If you have a large number of leads in your sales funnel, don’t worry you can apply the approaches discussed to speed up your sales cycle and close your deals fast.
